Momentum

CONSISTENCY

For me, one of the true delights of becoming a father was the rediscovery of my favourite childhood books as I read them to my son. From The Very Hungry Caterpillar to The Velveteen Rabbit and The Wind in the Willows, I loved watching his delight as he fell in love with the characters and plots just as I had three decades earlier.

I was reminded too of how many of the stories we read our kids are filled with powerful lessons for life — there is a reason the ‘moral of the story' is called just that! From the importance of sharing to the value of honesty, so many of the lessons in kids' books are ones many of us adults would do well to revisit.

And yet, the childhood story that perhaps offers the most poignant lesson for building momentum is the legendary Aesop's fable The Tortoise and the Hare. In case you're a little hazy on the details, this little fable tells the story of a slow-moving tortoise who grows tired of the boastful taunts of a hare and challenges him to a race. As would be expected, the race begins and the hare streaks way ahead and, confident of his certain win, takes a nap at the halfway mark.

The tortoise, however, plodding along, crawls slowly past his sleeping opponent and (spoiler alert!) wins the race. The tortoise may not have been the fastest, the sexiest or the most gifted, but the victory was his nonetheless.

Even those who may not remember the details of this fable know the moral to the story: slow and steady wins the race.

As it is in business ...